Government affairs

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) received a letter from 10 House Republicans, urging him to not take action on federal employee retirement programs.

Arguing that federal workers and retirees “have already sacrificed” in the name of deficit reduction, the letter follows the release of the House Budget Committee’s FY2018 non-binding budget resolution, which instructed Gowdy's oversight committee to reduce the deficit by a minimum of $32 billion over the next 10 years, though it did not specify how to achieve that.

Signatories were Reps. Rob Bishop (R-UT), Tom Cole (R-OK), Rob Wittman (R-VA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Walter Jones (R-NC), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Peter King (R-NY) and Austin Scott (R-GA).

“Our strongest objection is how the proposals break a promise to employees and retirees who have based career planning on longstanding promised benefit calculations,” the lawmakers wrote. “They and their families don’t deserve to be treated in this cavalier manner. No one needs to remind us of the deficit and the debt problem our nation faces, but federal employees are an easy political target.”

NALC supports efforts to protect federal workers and retirees from additional cuts to wages and benefits, and the union applauds these members of Congress for taking a strong, principled stance against such painful cuts.

NALC members are encouraged to contact their representatives in the House and Senate to let them know that their voters object to slashing federal employee retirement programs.

Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and be ready to provide your ZIP code to get connected with your House representative and with both of your senators.